Memory of local war dead hits home in Montreal West

Some residents in Montreal West don't have to look farther than their front lawn for a touching reminder of Canada's military sacrifices. Photos of 33 young men, all with some connection to Montreal West, are featured on posters that have popped up on lampposts on Westminster Ave.

Brenda Branswell, Montreal Gazette

Updated: November 8, 2014

A poster of Charles Dexter Schnebly on the front lawn of 124 Brock N. in the Montreal West area of Montreal Thursday, November 6, 2014. There are 33 posters featuring 33 men who died in combat in the Second World War and who had a connection to Montreal West. John Kenney / MONTREAL GAZETTE

Some residents in Montreal West don’t have to look farther than their front lawn for a touching reminder of Canada’s military sacrifices.

Photos of 33 young men, all with some connection to Montreal West, are featured on posters that have popped up on lampposts on Westminster Ave.

Some of the posters jut up on pickets in front of homes where the soldiers once lived. They include Donald Brain, an officer in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry who died in Italy after a distinguished career.

A poster featuring Edgar Anderson Paterson is on Ron Laughlin’s lawn. It says Paterson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, attended Montreal West High School and once lived at the same address. It also includes the sad dates of his short life: 1923-1945.

“I was just looking out my window the other day and I saw a mother and her couple of kids, they were looking at it,” Laughlin said.

“I kind of like the idea and that’s why I agreed, sure, why not put it on my lawn,” he said.

Robert Drummond, an emergency room doctor at St. Mary’s Hospital, is the local resident who spearheaded the project.

“The idea was shamelessly plagiarized from something I heard about on the CTV National News last year,” Drummond said of a community in New Brunswick that had done something similar, “basically putting a face to the name.”

Drummond thought it was a great idea and easily transposable to tight-knit Montreal West. “So that idea was always in my head,” said Drummond, who approached Beny Masella, the town’s mayor who is also a friend, with the idea.

“The mayor was supportive. He assured me that the town council would be supportive,” Drummond said. And so was the town’s historian, David Watson, who was a good starting point for a lot of the information, Drummond said.

A poster of Donald Brain on the front lawn of 34 Ballantyne St. in Montreal West.John Kenney /
Montreal Gazette

There are 50 names on the cenotaph in Montreal West of soldiers who died during the Second World War. There are only 33 posters because those are the ones he could get pictures for, Drummond said. He’d like to have posters for all of them eventually.

Drummond has been driving to Ottawa every month to look up the service records of the young men at Library and Archives Canada.

“Anybody can say something about how these men died,” Drummond said.

“But the whole point of the project for me is to tell you how they lived and to kind of put their lives and their death in context.”

A big chunk of the photos for the posters came from Library and Archives Canada. Some came from yearbooks and family members. “There are about five people whose family members are still around and once they heard about the project they were just so thankful and so forthcoming with information,” Drummond said.

Montreal West has always been a community that’s been very supportive of its veterans, Masella said. “But people really love this initiative. This started last year, but just the timing with what happened in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa, people are just a little bit more sensitive to this year and they’re really appreciative of it,” Masella said.

Most of the young men died in combat. A majority attended Elizabeth Ballantyne elementary school and many went to the former Montreal West High School.

Drummond’s parents, who are deceased, were both Second World War veterans. Drummond calls it a three-pronged project. Eventually, they’d like to have a link on the town’s website where people can click on the name and see a picture and read about the veteran.

“This will eventually morph into a book — that no one will buy — but I think they deserve a book,” said Drummond, who plans to write about each of the 50 veterans.

“Every one of these stories has some element of quiet heroism in it,” he said.

“The most gratifying thing to me is like (Wednesday) night I was heading out for a meeting and I saw a family with a child in a stroller in the dark stopped by one of these signs on someone’s lawn, peering at it and reading the fine print. And then I knew that we as a town community hit a home run.”

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